Beauties of the mind, a poetical sketch :: :: University of Virginia Library

It was a scene of beauty!—music, soft
As fairy mandolins by moonlight lake
Or river far remote, entranced the ear
And modulated every voice to love!
A thousand lamps sent forth their brilliant light
O'er the proud carvings of the gorgeous halls;
And roses sweet as from the royal groves
Of scented Araby, like lovers' lips,
Kissed the white marble of each sculptured vase:
And splendid mirrors glittered with the crowd
Of fairy shapes, like the clear heaven with stars!

It was a scene of beauty!—Sorrow fled
As in despair of moving hearts so light!—
And Joy unbound her rich and odorous hair,
Forming her floating robes of gossamer
To graceful wings, and full of smiles tripped on.
The night was redolent of loveliness!
The sylphed forms of many a ladye bright,
With snowy brow half shining 'neath her curls,
Like moonlight from the raven clouds of eve!
And eyes, whose passionate beauty filled the mind
With voiceless adoration, glanced along!
Who then might dream of change?—there came no voice
To stir the bosom with the hymn of death;
There flashed no sudden vision of the tomb;
No faded leaf to mark the blight to come!—
And yet, oh God!—how many a young light heart
Since then hath beat its last—how many a lip
Lies silent in the tomb—and the sweet eyes
That were the planets of our happiness
Are dark and closed for ever!—Two I knew,

In all the dignity and strength of youth,
Delighted actors in that gala hour,
Who now within the church-yard moulder lone;
Minute by minute, ghastly, dark and cold!

Thus I look on thee, thou bright portraiture
Of past magnificence, and from thy glow
Of noble beauty teach my inmost soul
A lesson and a moral, sad and true.